Trusted Bond, page 7
“I love you so.”
“Yes, I know,” he said, chuckling, “but it doesn’t excuse the cereal.”
I nodded, unable to speak. The man had me speechless over a discussion of Frosted Flakes. His hands slid up and down my back, sliding over my bare skin. “And all the different kinds of coffee and the damn creamer… who needs that many flavored creamers?” The man had beautiful lips, and they were there, beckoning, ready to be kissed. “All the crap you buy.” “I don’t buy crap,” I sniffled, my voice nasal.
“Okay,” he said, kissing the curve of my shoulder. “Whatever you say, just….” He squeezed me tighter, molding my half-naked body to his. “Could you just please… please let me take care of you, all right?”
And I wanted to, but…. “I don’t need to be saved or rescued—I’m not some damsel in distress. I’m a guy, and I have to be strong on my own.”
His hand slid down over my ass, cupping it before gently pulling me forward which pressed my lengthening cock against his own hardening flesh. The friction felt amazing, and I caught my breath.
“I don’t want to save you—you don’t need saving. You hardly need anything, which is why I’m so crazy about you.” Hands that had been stroking my ass clamped tight, making sure I couldn’t get away, rocking me forward so that his straining cock settled snuggly between my ass cheeks. He moved under me, rubbing, grinding, his eyes narrowing to slits, his mouth opening, tasting the air between us. “You’re stubborn and cold sometimes, and you don’t trust me with all your secrets, but when you’re in my arms, I can see in your eyes that there’s nothing or no one you want more than me.”
It was true. Before I met Logan Church, I didn’t know anything about love. I saw the muscles in his jaw clench and heard the huff of sharply released breath. “God, Jin, you love so hard, it’s assaulting and possessive and downright scary.”
I put my hand down between us, slipping it under the elastic waistband of his pajama bottoms to stroke him. “Yeah, so?”
“Oh God,” he groaned, like he was in real pain.
“Are you complaining?”
“No, baby, I am not complaining,” he assured me. “I love the way you love me. Whatever you want, whatever you want to do to me or whatever you want from me… just ask.”
He had offered up his whole life on a silver platter, whatever I wanted. “Please, Logan,” I breathed down the side of his throat. “Fuck me.”
He moved fast, pressing me down into the bed, rolling me to my side so he could spoon around me again. “Your head will blow off if I do what I want, and on top of that, you’ll probably pass out.”
“I don’t think—”
“I know you don’t, so that’s why I’m doing it for you.”
I squirmed in his arms. My body needed him. “Please.” “No.” He nuzzled his face in my hair, moving it out of the way to reach my skin. “Logan.”
In answer, he tucked me in tighter against his chest and abdomen, his cotton-covered thighs plastered to my ass and his lips open on the nape of my neck. “You have to rest—rest your body, rest your mind… just rest.”
“Please, Logan,” I begged him, my groan needy. “Put my legs over your shoulders—bury yourself in me, do it now.”
“You’re trying to kill me, but it’s not gonna work. I care more about you than I do about what my cock wants.”
Tremors licked through my body. “So I’m going to hold you while you sleep right here next to my heart, so you’ll know that you’re safe and that I love you more than anything.”
I stopped moving, just stilled completely, my lust drowning in his genuine concern. “Don’t be scared. Trust me. I’m not going anywhere.”
My throat tightened up, and I couldn’t speak.
“I made my own decision tonight. No matter how long it takes or what I have to do, I will get you to realize that I’m your guy. I will get you to trust me.”
“Logan, I already trust—”
“No, you don’t, but you will.”
“Logan—”
“I’m sorry for what I said before about us living apart—I was mad, and I know you love your home, our home, more than anything, so I went after that. Forgive me.”
I nodded fast, my throat closing up as I swallowed down tears. He nuzzled my hair aside, kissing the back of my neck. “I will never, ever have you anyplace but with me. Even if we’re not speaking, even if you hate me, I will go to bed every night with you at my side. You have no choice; you’re mine, my reah.”
As the words seeped into me, I realized how exhausted I was. “We’re different, it’s true, but not enough to matter and never enough to be apart. I don’t need to be everything; I just need to be close to it, because for me… you’re all there is.”
I wanted to say things, to reassure him of his place in my heart, but I also knew that it had to be real for him, and that meant the timing as well. “Stop thinking; close your eyes and go to sleep. I have you.”
Given the heat from his body and how safe I felt, I surrendered fast, taking one deep breath before I closed my eyes and sank into the bed.
FOR THE first time in a week, it was not the pain in my body that consumed me when I woke up. Just breathing in Logan’s scent all night as I lay beside him let me sleep better than I had since he left. My body had actually rested, and so the ache I opened my eyes to was completely different. My mate. I felt the growl rise up out of me.
Rolling off the bed, I stood, shucked my pajama bottoms and T-shirt, and felt the relief of having my hard, stiff cock bob free. I could feel how fevered my body was, how much I needed my mate. Back on the bed, crawling across it to Logan, I took in the carved line of the man, the broad shoulders, the rippling muscles in his back, his narrow waist, and the swell of his buttocks that tapered to long, rock-hard legs. Looking at him, watching him, was making my breath hitch with sharp whimpers and whines. My mate was like a work of art beside me, smelling like smoke and sandalwood. I could not resist the urge to bury my face in his hair and inhale his scent. Moving over him, I kissed down his spine, ending at the firm, round ass. I eased the elastic waistband of his sleep shorts down to expose smooth skin. The bite I took was hardly one; it was gentle, teasing. “What’re you doing?” The deep, warm chuckle curled my toes. “Your skin tastes so good.” My voice came out a raspy whisper. “Feels so good… I just… I think I’m gonna lay here.”
“What?”
When I stretched out over him, draped the length of my body across his. He understood. I was pressed against him, giving him all my weight, nuzzling my face in the side of his neck. “Jesus, baby… what do you need?”
I licked the side of his throat before letting my fangs lengthen, top and bottom, wanting to taste him, pierce his flesh and savor his blood on my tongue. “I need you to trust me when I tell you that I want you. Don’t think for me. I know what I have to have to heal me and make me whole.”
His body convulsed as he leaned into my bite, a hoarse groan torn from his chest. As I swallowed, there was the faint taste of copper in my mouth, and I shuddered hard.
“I want to be gentle with you,” he growled, twisting out from under me, dumping me over on my back, one hard, callused hand wrapping around my aching, already dripping shaft. “No,” I gasped, trying to slide in and out of his warm, steely grip. “I just need you, Logan, I don’t need gentle. Please, just… fuck me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, his thumb rubbing drops of leaking precome over the head of my shaft.
It felt so good, and he bent toward me.
“No, Logan, I need you to fuck me… please. I need to be claimed and… oh.”
There was a moment of absolute stillness as he weighed my words against what he thought he knew. And then he moved. Sometimes I forgot the power that lived in my man and waited, watchful and ready for whenever I willingly submitted myself to him. His low, hoarse growl sent a shiver through me, and I closed my eyes to listen to the sounds of him opening the drawer in the nightstand and the lube being opened. I let the anticipation build before I opened my eyes again, unable not to look, not to see him.
Watching my mate coat his long, hard, thick cock with lube was one of the many gifts of being the only one that slept in the man’s bed.
“Gonna go slow,” he promised as he tossed the bottle on the bed, bending forward over me as I lifted my ankles to his shoulders, “and gentle. I want to watch you come apart under me.”
I shivered as the tops of my thighs were pressed back against my chest and one long slick finger was eased slowly inside of me.
“I don’t want you to be hurt anymore.”
“You could never hurt me,” I whimpered, frustrated and needy. “Just—please!” I almost growled. “I don’t need you to do—I’m ready now. I need you now.”
“Jin—”
“Logan! What do I hafta do to get you to fuck me?”
I saw the glint in the eyes hovering above me, the heat that filled them, the way they narrowed as he looked at me. “You say you love me, want me.” My voice quavered. “Show me.”
“How you’re looking at me now,” he murmured, “I want you looking at me that way all the time.”
“What would people say,” I asked, catching my breath as my body was folded in half, the swollen head of his hard shaft pressing gently at my entrance. “They would say what a lucky son of a bitch Logan Church is,” he assured me as he eased slowly inside, filling me, stretching me until he was buried to the hilt. I gasped as he slid out only to pound back into me a second later, hard and deep. “Oh God, Logan, you feel so good.” “You…,” he said against my skin, my throat, as he bent and licked and kissed, sucking, biting, all the while stroking in and out of me, deeper, shoving harder, and my body tightened around him in response as I arched up, meeting his thrusts with my own. “I missed you so bad…. It was the first time since….” What was I supposed to say? That I had craved his touch, been restless and miserable without him? My body had yearned for his; not being under him had been a constant, gnawing ache that never left me. And now, now, I finally had him where I wanted him… finally. “I missed you too,” he said, like I had spoken my thoughts aloud, his voice husky and low, very sexy. He anchored himself with a hand on my hip, and his right wrapped around my throbbing cock, the rhythmic pumping in sync with the thrusts in my ass, sending shudders of electricity rushing up my spine. My legs held him tight, my heels pressed to his lower back. I wanted him deeper, urging him on as I rocked against him. My name was yelled in warning.
“You won’t hurt me,” I swore to him, feeling his restraint, how careful he was being. “Just fuck me… please.”
“Jin—”
“Hard, Logan,” I begged him, trying not to whimper. “Please.”
The gel-slicked hand on my shaft tightened, milking me with firm strokes that had my body convulsing in seconds.
“Logan!”
He lifted my hips, changing his angle, and I was impaled so hard, so deep, that just the motion triggered my roaring orgasm. Usually I felt the tell-tale signs, heat built, my balls ached, my body tightened, but all it took was Logan slamming into me, exercising his power over me, demanding my submission as well as showing me his absolute love, and I came hard and messy, my spend running over his fingers, to his absolute delight. “Look what I do to you,” he said, and his eyes were sparkling in the darkness. I moaned out my agreement. “You feel so good wrapped around my cock.”
I tried to draw him completely inside, under my skin, my arms, my legs tightening, the muscles in my ass clenching, holding him inside my contracting channel. “Jin.” He gasped my name before his head fell back as he thrust forward, the flood of warmth letting me know, if the shivering did not, that the man had found his release. “Come here.”
His head lifted, and he was looking at me through clouded eyes.
I held open my arms, and he collapsed down on top of me, cheek to cheek as we rode out the shuddering aftershocks of our orgasms. As soon as I could get air into my lungs, I turned my head and kissed the stubbled jaw. “You sure you don’t wanna date me? I cook.”
Heavy sigh, warm breath on my face before his lips touched mine. The kiss was rough and hungry, devouring, and burned right through me. No had ever kissed me the way Logan Church did, possessively and tenderly at the same time. I breathed him in, sinking down into the bed.
“You’re a terrible cook,” he said as he lifted his lips just barely from mine. “I have other talents.”
A rumble came from deep in his chest, a sound he only ever made when we were alone. “You know you’re mine.”
“Yes, Logan.”
“Then okay,” he said with a chuckle, lifting up, easing slowly out of my body only to collapse at my side. “I’ll date you. You wanna go to Cairo with me?”
The man had obviously missed the part about dinner and a movie. “We can run under the moon together beside the pyramids,” he said before he wrapped me in his arms, pulling me to his massive frame, notching my head under his chin as he held me tight to his heart. “Just you and me.”
I would have tried to talk, would have tried to move or breathe or something, but as it was, the man had overwhelmed me, and all I could do was lie there in his arms and let him hold me, marveling at the love that lived in my mate.
Chapter Four
THE HEAVENLY smell of coffee brought me up from the deep recesses of sleep to find that I was once again alone in my bed. I rose after a few minutes, pulling on sweats and a T-shirt, not ready to shower yet, needing caffeine and food first. I went downstairs, yawning the whole way, and almost pushed on the kitchen door but stopped when I heard voices on the other side. “You should just tie him up and tell him what’s gonna happen,” I heard Mikhail’s deep, smoky voice, still full of gravel; he had not been awake long. “He is your reah, Logan, you’re not his. You make the rules. You tell him what he can do and where he can go and whom he may see. He lives and dies at your command.”
There was a snort of laughter. “Really. Lives and dies, you say.”
“Christ, I knew it was stupid even while I was saying it.”
I heard Logan’s laughter, warm, rich, and just the sound made my pulse go wild. “We both know he should—”
“I know what he should do, but between that and what he will do… there’s no telling.”
“I confess that I don’t understand the tact you take with him. He is, after all, as I’ve said before, your reah. You simply need to tell him what to do.”
Deep male grunt that I would know anywhere. “Is that right? Tell Jin, order Jin… that’s gonna work?”
“Logan—”
“You may be the sylvan of this tribe, but you don’t know anything about my reah. If I want to keep him, and I do, then denying him his freedom to make his own choices is the biggest mistake I can make.”
“But you’re the semel of our tribe, Logan. Your word is law.”
“In the short time that Jin has been here, can you think of one instance where he hasn’t supported me?”
There was a long silence before Mikhail’s irritated sigh. “You see, that’s what I mean; when I allow Jin to choose his own path, he always chooses the correct one.”
“I’m not saying that Jin is not a good reah. You could not be blessed with a mate more schooled in our laws and customs and protocol, but he must submit to your will—he must.”
Heavy sigh from my mate. “He has to choose it, I can’t force him.”
“You’re the semel. You make the laws.”
Quick scoff. “For all but my reah.”
“When the others see Jin not submitting to you, they will question you.”
“But Jin would never humiliate me with a public show of —”
“Then make certain that all your commands for your reah are done in public so he must do as you tell him.”
“And have him figure it out and skip all public appearances with me?”
“He wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh yes, he would. That’s exactly how his mind works.”
And Logan was right, because even after a mere six months, the man knew me well. Instead of demanding I be happy, my mate let me be sad. He understood that I laughed when I was nervous and coughed to cover the noise. He could follow my very fragmented train of thought, got my jokes, and had an uncanny talent for finishing my sentences. He always knew when I needed to eat even before I did and never made me come up with dinner suggestions. He knew when I wanted to be held and when I wanted to be held down. He brought up random subjects to pull attention from me when I got upset and kissed me, always, like it was both the first and the last time he would ever see me. He understood when I told him to go away that I meant he should stay and fight, just as he knew that some days I needed to be all by myself. I really was very lucky, and even though I knew it, there was always the nagging doubt in the back of my head that someday everything would simply go up in smoke. “Jin?”
Startled, embarrassed for being caught eavesdropping, I turned fast to face Domin, who had just come in from outside. He smelled like wind and something else that I couldn’t place. “Sorry,” he muttered.
I noticed how wrung out he looked. “Domin—”
“You look like crap,” he commented, looking me over. “Should you be up?”
“I’m fine.” I studied him. “You’re the one who—what’s wrong with you?”
Quick head shake, forced smile. “Nothing.”
But even if his words could fool me, there was a weariness radiating off the man that I had never seen in him before, and the usually laughing brown eyes were flat. “That’s bull—”
Shoving me through the door cut me off and killed all the conversation in the room we entered as everyone looked up from the table at the same time. I had thought since I didn’t hear anyone else that Logan and Mikhail were alone, but that was not the case. Crane was missing, and Koren, and Russ, who was still in Los Angeles, and Logan’s mother Eva, who was still in Pittsburgh, but everyone else was there, staring at me. I muffled a groan as mouths fell open, breath was caught, and, in Delphine’s case, tears were quickly swallowed.
